After the first month of this poll, over half of those responding thus far do not think strict adherence to the Baptist Confession of 1689 is necessary to being a Reformed Baptist. Here is the breakdown thus far (found at the bottom of the page):
10% thought that one only had to be a Baptist who held to Calvinistic
soteriology.35% thought that one must be a Baptist who holds to Calvinism and Covenant
Theology.46% thought that one must be a Baptist who holds to the 1689
Confession.7% thought that one must hold to the 1689 Confession for the most part, but
thought that this should not have to include adherence to the Sabbath
requirement.
This is taken from a small sample thus far, and I hope that there will be many other respondents to the poll over the coming year. There are 335 days left to vote, so if you haven’t responded yet, scroll down to the bottom of the page and weigh in.
It is also interesting that the articles describing Reformed Baptists at both Wikipedia and Theopedia do not include adherence to the Baptist Confession of 1689 as necessary to being Reformed Baptist. For example, the Wikipedia article states that Reformed Baptists “typically adhere to the 1644 or 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.” And the Theopedia article states that they “quite often adhere to either the First or Second London Baptist Confession of 1644 and 1689 respectively.” In addition, the Wikipedia article lists the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals among the associations considered to be Reformed Baptist, although it does not adhere to either of the aforementioned confessions. And both of the articles include Founders Ministries, which also does not adhere to either of these confessions.
Anyway, I am eager to see what this year’s poll shows.